Best High Chairs For Babies and Toddlers

Best Reclining Foldable Chair: Graco Slim Snacker High Chair

It’s the Catch 22 of high chairs. Most full-feature high chairs do NOT fold in a compact manner. And other bare bones high chairs do fold, but don’t have the features most folks want.

For the best compact fold high chair with a reclining seat, we’d give the nod to Graco’s Slim Snacker. It checks all the right boxes: full features yet compact fold. And a price that is easy on the wallet.

What We Liked

• Three position seat recline plus three/five point harness for safety. That means you can use it for younger babies that can’t sit up unassisted yet.

• Narrow fold: just 10.4″ wide. Yes, that will fit into a pantry or closet without a problem.

• No assembly required.

• Machine washable pad plus mesh storage basket, full size tray with cup holder.

• Affordable.

• One-hand, standing fold. We found this high chair among the easiest to fold in our testing.

• Lightweight.

What Needs Work

• No dishwasher-safe tray insert.

• Removing pad for cleaning could be easier. This flummoxed some parents and we’d agree: it isn’t easy or intuitive. But there are videos that can help.

• Tray doesn’t lay flat on counter. That’s because the tray has a bar attached to it (to keep baby from submarining out of the chair). While this is a good safety feature, we’d prefer it attached to the chair, not the tray. That’s because you then can’t lay the tray flat on the counter when a bar is in the way.

• No wheels.

• Flap that hides the release handle is a food magnet. That’s no fun to clean.

Best Easy Clean High Chair: Evenflo 4-in-1 Eat & Grow Convertible High Chair

Cleaning a high chair can be such a pain—especially when high chair makers design all sorts of cracks and crevices into their fancy chairs. These are food magnets.

For a simple chair that is easy to clean, we liked the Evenflo 4-in-1 Eat & Grow. Yes it comes with a pad that you can wipe down. But we think it is even easier to just remove the pad—the smooth plastic sides have nowhere for food to hide. 

Here’s more:

What We Liked

• Easy assembly.

• Affordable.

• Super easy to clean (especially with the pad removed).

• 4 uses: infant high chair, baby dining chair and tray, toddler stand along chair, big kid table and chair.

• Machine washable seat pad.

What Needs Work

• No fold.

• Two hands needed to release the tray.

• Very wide legs = tripping hazard.

• To remove the tray, you have to tilt it up . . . and this makes food spill.

Best for Small Spaces: Fisher-Price SpaceSaver High Chair

For some reason, high chair makers must think all parents live in palatial kitchens with acres of space—what else explains large high chairs that have the same wingspan of moon landers?

If that isn’t your kitchen, we have high chair solutions that make the best of small spaces. We hand-tested 13 high chairs to find the best option for small spaces—the winner is the Fisher-Price SpaceSaver High Chair. Here’s why:

What We Liked

• Full features, half the space. The SpaceSaver’s chair works much like a full-size high chair: two seat recline positions, five-position height adjustment, nice chair pad, etc. What’s missing? The large base—and that’s a good thing. This high chair just straps on a regular kitchen chair, saving you the large footprint of a regular high chair.

• Dishwasher-safe. You can pop the entire thing (tray, tray insert, seat and seat back) in the dishwasher.

• Pad and harness are machine washable. 

• Assembly is easy. In our tests, we could assemble this chair in under 5 minutes.

What Needs Work

• Doesn’t easily store away. Once you strap the SpaceSaver to a chair, you can’t slide that chair under a kitchen table. So this isn’t a solution if you prefer a high chair to slip out of sight when unused.

• Nooks can be hard to clean. This high chair has various nooks and seams in the plastic that are food magnets. And that was no fun to clean. On the plus side, you can throw the whole thing in a dishwasher.

Best Folding High Chair: Cosco Simple Fold High Chair

When it comes to baby gear, sometimes simple is best. Case in point: the Cosco Simple Fold High Chair.

Many fancy high chairs today try to do too many things: a thousand adjustments, spinning toys on the tray and then they morph into something else.

This high chair takes a different tact. It’s just a high chair. To feed your baby. At a price that won’t require a second mortgage on your home. A quick overview:

What We Liked

• Affordable. With many high chairs topping $100 and even $200, it’s nice to find something that works at a reasonable price.

• Quick fold. When folded, this high chair is just 8″ wide—making it easy to store away in a closet.

• No frills. This chair is great for a grandparent or caregiver’s home.

What Needs Work

• No tray insert. This makes clean up easier, since you can pop the tray insert into a dishwasher. If this is important, Cosco does make a deluxe version of this chair with that feature for a few extra bucks.

• No seat recline or height adjustments. While this high chair works with standard kitchen tables, it doesn’t adjust in height to work with kitchen countertops or other non-standard tables.

• 3-point harness. We prefer a five-point harness to make sure a baby doesn’t wiggle out of the chair while feeding. A three-point harness is ok, but requires extra parent vigilance during use.

Why Trust Us

We’ve been rating and reviewing products for the home and families since 1994. We do extensive research, evaluating products with an eye toward quality, ease of use and affordability. When we purchase a product for hands-on testing, we do so with our own money.

Here’s another key point: we don’t take money from the brands we review. No free samples, no sponsors, no “partnerships.” Our work is 100% reader-supported!

About the Authors: Denise & Alan Fields

Denise & Alan Fields have made a career out of chronicling life’s milestones: getting married, buying a home and raising kids.

As best-selling authors, the Fields have written a series of best-selling consumer guides, including Baby Bargains (over two million copies in print).
With detailed reviews and recommendations of cribs, strollers and car seats, Baby Bargains has helped multiple generations of parents pick out the best gear for baby since 1994

Inside, Baby Bargains, you’ll find:

• CHEAT SHEETS for your baby registry―create a baby registry in minutes with our good, better, best ideas.

• SEVEN THINGS no one tells you about baby gear, from nursery furniture to feeding baby.

• Dozens of SAFETY TIPS to keep baby safe and affordably
baby proof your home.

Co-author Denise Fields is one half of the team that wrote the beloved baby care series, Baby 411.

Covering pregnancy, baby and toddler years, the Baby 411 series is both fun to read and informative—the inside scoop on your child’s growth, development and health.

Think of it as the ultimate FAQ for new parents:

• Sleep. The best way to get your baby to sleep through the night.

• First aid—when to worry, when not to . . . and what to do when baby gets sick. No-nonsense, down-to-earth advice you can trust.

• Fussy baby 411. Is it colic? Acid reflux? Or something else? Discover  the secrets to soothing a fussy baby.

• Detailed nutrition info with a step-by-step guide for successful breastfeeding, introducing solid food and the ‘‘new and improved’’ formulas. Plus: simple steps to avoid food allergies!

Denise Fields

Raised in Loveland, Colorado, Denise Fields caught the writing bug early in life. She won awards for her essays at the tender age of 12, all while tending her family’s pet donkey at a farm in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains.

Fields received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado before co-founding a publishing company in Austin, Texas in 1988.

As the co-author of 23 books, Fields has written extensively on consumer topics, including real estate, parenting and children’s products.

A frequent guest on television, radio and online, Fields has been cited as an expert source by the New York Times, who hailed her Baby Bargains book as “the Bible of baby gear.”

Fields also has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on TV shows like Good Morning America and the NBC Today Show.

Alan Fields

Alan Fields grew up in Dallas, Texas before attending the University of Colorado and receiving a Bachelor of Science degree.

Fields worked both in newspapers and radio before launching a career as a book author.

Together with Denise, Fields moved to Austin, Texas where Fields received a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Colorado.

Fields co-founded Windsor Peak Press, a boutique publishing company now based in Boulder, CO.

As a consumer advocate and money-saving expert, Fields has been quoted in the Washington Post, New York Times and even People Magazine.

Denise & Alan Fields talking money-saving tips with Katie Couric.

How We Come Up With Recommendations

Let’s talk about how we pick products to recommend.

In a world full of influencers paid to shill a product, you deserve unbiased recommendations based on solid research and testing.

That’s why we are here.

Here’s three reasons why folks trust our recommendations and advice when it comes to selecting products for your home and family:

1. Experience.
2. Independence.
3. Expert.

Experience

We have been researching, reviewing and rating products for families and the home since 1994. (Yes, that long!). This is what we do—we obsess about gear so you don’t have to.

We have many fine competitors online but we challenge you to find one who has as much experience in the family category as Baby Bargains. Go ahead, we’ll wait right here.

We do hands-on research.

What does that mean?

How we research varies by the product category. For some products used in a home, we purchase them with our own money (no freebies) and test them in-house.

Example: for a review on the best vanilla bean paste (part of our series on baking products), we compare the thickness of several brands in our test kitchen:

For other recommendations, we tap our vast readership (our books have 3 million copies in print) for their feedback. We look for real-world product reports from our readers to narrow down the vast field of choices in many categories.

To keep things fair, we also do blind taste tests when it comes to items like food. We’ll gather a panel of ramen enthusiasts, for example, and then have them chow down on mystery bowls to see which scores best.

To get insights beyond our own testing and reader feedback, we interview industry experts to get the inside scoop on what separates a quality product from an inferior choice.

Finally, we regularly meet one on one with gear companies and even tour manufacturing facilities. On a recent trip to a Ohio, we visited the factory that makes mattresses we review to watch the manufacturing process:

The result of all this effort: you get the most reliable gear reviews you can find, online or off.

We aim to give you additional insight beyond what you can find yourself via online descriptions and reviews.

How do we get to do this? That brings us to reason number 2 . . .

Independence

Let’s do something you won’t hear from our competitors: we’re going to tell you exactly how we make money.

We make a living from sales of our print books and affiliate commissions. What does that mean? When you purchase a recommended product that is linked in an article, we may get a small commission.

Do you see anything missing? That’s right—we do NOT take money from the brands we review. No cash, no free samples, no gift baskets. When we fly to see a manufacturer’s factory, we pay ALL of our travel expenses. The result: we tell you how it really is.

Let’s talk about a dirty secret of influencers who “review” gear. Many take free product to give away in contests. Others accept samples in exchange for a review. Some insist on cash.

That compromises independence, in our opinion.

To keep it real, we insist on being independent from the brands we review.

Expert

Want to see something really scary? Take a look at this:

Yes, that my friends, is a luggage scale. It strikes fear and terror in the hearts of a certain group of people—baby stroller makers.

Why?

That’s because stroller makes often brag about how little their strollers weigh, knowing that’s a key feature consumers look for. Lightweight strollers are preferred over those that weigh more than 25 lbs.

So here’s our secret sauce: we carry a portable luggage scale with us when we evaluate new strollers. And wouldn’t you know it? The ACTUAL weight of strollers is often more than what marketers state. Surprised?

It’s that little bit of fact checking that separates Baby Bargains from other gear review sources. Most simply take the maker’s word on a stroller’s weight. We verify.

We take that same approach to all the products we review, aiming to produce thorough research that goes deeper than our competitors.

So there you have it—who we are, how we got here and how we come up with our recommendations. As always, we value your feedback, so drop us a line via our web page or social media channels. Thanks in advance for your support.